ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012

Afghanistan
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Illegal
Penal Code, 1976 185
CHAPTER EIGHT: Adultery, Pederasty, and Violations of Honour
Article 427:
“(1) A person who commits adultery or pederasty shall be sentenced to long imprisonment.
(2) In one of the following cases commitment of the acts, specified above, is considered to be aggravating
conditions:
a. In the case where the person against whom the crime has been committed is not yet eighteen years old.
b. …”
In Afghan legal terminology “pederasty” appears to refer to intercourse between males regardless of age.
The fact that paedophilia or sexual relations with persons under the age of consent falls under subsection
2(a) of article 427 indicates that this is the case. Terming sexual acts between adult men “pederasty” has
previously not been uncommon; this occurred for example in the translations of the Criminal Codes of
Albania (1977) and Latvia (1933), and in the old Russian legal tradition a “pederast” usually referred to a male
who had anal intercourse with another male, regardless of age. 186
Islamic Sharia law, criminalising homosexual acts with a maximum of death penalty, is applied together with
the codified Penal law. However, no known cases of death sentences have been handed out for
homosexual acts after the end of Taliban rule.
Bangladesh
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Legal
Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860) 187
Section 377 “Unnatural Offences”
"Whoever voluntary has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman, or animal, shall be
punished with imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10
years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described
in this section."
Bhutan
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Illegal
Penal Code 2004 188
Chapter 14: Sexual Offences
Unnatural sex
Section 213. “A defendant shall be guilty of the offence of unnatural sex, if the defendant engages in
sodomy or any other sexual conduct that is against the order of nature.”Grading of unnatural sex
Section 214. “The offence of unnatural sex shall be a petty misdemeanor.”
185 Text of the law is available at: http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/asia/AF/Penal%20Code%20Eng.pdf/view.
186 Healey, Dan, 2001, Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia. Chicago: Chicago University Press, p. 272.
187 Text of the law is available at; http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/sections_detail.php?id=11&sections_id=3233.
188 Text of the law is available at: http://www.judiciary.gov.bt/html/act/PENAL%20CODE.pdf.
State-Sponsored Homophobia – May 2011
ILGA – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org
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